Orange Laxers Begin Fall Practice
Junior Joel White (#11) was an honorable mention All-American in 2009. He returns for his third season as one of the leaders of the Orange defense.
9/9/2009 6:40:46 PM
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The Syracuse University men's lacrosse team, winners of the last two national championships, returned to the practice field today under the direction of 12th-year head coach John Desko. Wednesday’s opening practice was the start of a four-week fall practice season for the Orange that culminates on Saturday, Oct. 10 with scrimmages against Navy and Harvard in Annapolis, Md.
The fall practice season is critical for Desko and rest of the Orange coaches to try and get a headstart on preparing the team for the spring.
"Because of the weather and lack of a full field early in the spring, we probably do a little bit more in the fall than most programs do," Desko said. “We do a little bit more coaching, we do a little more of getting the offense and defense in. We definitely do more clears and rides in the fall because those are full-field situations.”
Last year, the Orange went 16-2 for the second straight season and won the program’s 11th national championship. Syracuse and Cornell staged a dramatic battle for the title that was won by the Orange, 10-9, in overtime.
Desko welcomes back more than 30 players from that squad, including five starters. However, the Orange will need to replace several graduating seniors that played key roles during the team’s run to its second consecutive national championship.
"We lost some great players at both ends of the field,” Desko said. “We lost Sid Smith and we lost Kenny Nims. And I really thought after the playoffs and the championship last year that Sid Smith was the best defenseman in the country. I thought Kenny Nims was the best attackman, if not the best player in the country. Those are two bookends that will be hard to replace.
“Then you have the middle of the field. I think we lost five of our top six midfielders. Guys like Matt Abbott, who was a Tewaaraton finalist, Dan Hardy and people like that who were huge for us last year. It’s not just losing that kind of talent, it’s losing that kind of senior leadership. We don’t have a lot of seniors this year so we’re looking for those guys to step up as well as some of the underclassmen.”
Among the returnees Desko expects assume a leadership position is junior attackman Stephen Keogh. Keogh tallied 49 goals on his way to USILA Honorable Mention All-America honors and started 17 games in 2009. Syracuse also brings back seniors Cody Jamieson and Chris Daniello, as well as sophomore Tim Desko at the offensive end of the field. All three players made starts for the Orange at various times last season.
Defensively, Syracuse will benefit from the return of junior John Lade and senior Matt Tierney who both started every game on close defense in 2009. The Orange also brings back its top longstick midfielder in junior Joel White and junior starting goalie John Galloway became the first goaltender in NCAA history to win national championships as both a freshman and sophomore.
The 2010 campaign will mark the 91st varsity lacrosse season in school history.